Hasta La Creative!

If you like watching bad karaoke, you’re going to love Saatchi & Saatchi Europe’s newest spot for the Toyota Yaris Hybrid.

The agency turned Prague into a playlist by replacing street signs with the names of songs (much to the chagrin of local cabbies) and connecting the car’s stereo to the GPS so that the song changed every time the driver changed streets. In this way, drivers could select the song by altering their route. Supposedly the “best performers” were chosen to appear in the television spot, which airs in Poland, UK, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Spain, but we think you’ll agree “most entertaining” is a more accurate description.

So what does karaoke have to do with the Toyota Yaris Hybrid? (more…)

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For the latest in the brand’s “Learning Meets Doing,” Y&R New York teamed up with Über Content and director Adam Gunser to create a mockumentary celebrating “5 Second Filmmaker” Marty Goldberg.

Goldberg is the (fictional) king of the the 5-second film, taking home the “Cinco” award year after year and employing “The Goldberg Method” while grooming his assistant and protege. Seemingly targeting the growing popularity of the short-format Vine, the mockumentary mostly seems to be trying too hard and its humor never really hits it mark and struggles to find a cohesive tone. Most of the time, the spot seems to be mocking Goldberg, but elsewhere seems to celebrate his working methods showcasing Dell technology. Also worth noting is that the brevity-mocking video feels long at 2:15. Goldberg could have done it in five seconds. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney has a new campaign for Toyota, entitled “Bad in Dad,” featuring one dad’s “bad” antics, attributed to his new Camry RZ.

Set to George Thorogood‘s ubiquitous “Bad to the Bone,” the dad is pictured using his leaf blower to blow leaves onto the neighbors yard (kind of funny), spraying his wife with a hose (cute) and embarrassing his son with the locked door trick as he picks him up from soccer practice (just plain cruel). The narrator at the end of the 45-second spot asserts that the new Camry will “bring out the bad in dad,” making the positioning of the vehicle as the motivator behind dad’s behavior explicit. While he may occasionally step over the line, the dad’s antics are mostly presented as the kind of things most of us think about doing, don’t, and then wish we had, which fits with the vehicle’s presentation as a sort of liberator. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Droga5 takes Under Armour in a different direction with a new campaign called “I Will What I Want” aimed at women, starring Misty Copeland, a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre.

The spot opens with a young girl reading a rejection letter from a ballet academy over a sparse piano track as we see Copeland, poised on her taut ankles in a practice room. “…You lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length and bust,” reads the girl. “You have the wrong body for ballet. And at 13, you are too old to be considered.” At this point, the soundtrack is set in motion and Copeland springs to life, twirling and gliding across the stage decked out in Under Armour. It is not until the conclusion of the 60-second spot that Copeland’s identity is revealed, her ultimate triumph over adversity implied.

Copeland, who is only the third African American soloist in the history of the American Ballet Theatre, told The New York Times “she never received a rejection letter that so starkly enumerated the reasons she was ill suited to be a ballet dancer,” but that “it accurately encapsulated the resistance she had faced throughout her career,” told from the time she was an adolescent that she had “the wrong body type” for ballet.

We see a lot of ads aim to be inspirational, but seldom do they succeed like “I Will What I Want,” which, unlike most spots with similar ambitions, doesn’t come across as forced or hokey. Coming from Under Armour, it’s an unexpected and refreshing new direction. Along with the broadcast spot, the campaign also includes digital and outdoor components, featuring Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, tennis player Sloane Stephens and soccer player Kelley O’Hara in addition to Copeland. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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TBWA Toronto has a new spot for Nissan Sentra that explores fears of filling up, horror movie style.

The 60-second “Gas Station” opens on a man arriving at a creepy, dimly-lit gas station. Soon the station comes to life, as the man is relentlessly attacked by the gas pumps, which also do a number on his car. Eventually, another man, driving a Nissan Sentra, comes to the rescue, beckoning him to hop in. This is followed by the message, “Don’t Fear Filling Up,” and boast of the Sentra’s “Better combined fuel economy than Civic.” In a spot that spends so much time on a ridiculous fuel-fearing message, you’d think they’d focus a little more than a quick flash of text on the Sentra’s fuel economy, but instead most of the 60 seconds are spent on building up unconvincing horror atmosphere. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Leo Burnett gets emotional for Ronald McDonald House Charities with their new spot, “Dad’s Voice.”

The 60-second ad highlights the emotional impact of the charity providing home-to-home accommodation for families with a child in the hospital. “It’s only a voice, everyone has one,” a narrator intones at the opening of the spot. “But this, this is dad’s voice. Dad’s voice is, well, dad’s.” Going on to list some of the voice’s idiosyncrasies, the spot concludes, “Dad’s voice is the sound of home, even when they’re not at home.”

It’s a pretty straightforward approach, but it makes a real emotional impact, delivering on a relevant insight for the charity. It helps that the approach is tender without being cloying, choosing not to oversell the drama of the situation but rather sticking to what viewers can relate to. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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In the latest sign that the digital ad lengths are getting out of control, Anomaly tapped Jude Law for a six minute “short film” long ad promoting Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

When Law admires a wealthy friend’s boat, with the friend going on about the ship’s unique aspects and building circumstances, he makes a gentleman’s wager to win the seafaring vessel with a dance. Unsure why he would do this, when he can’t really dance, Law nevertheless prepares a choreographed effort to impress the friend and win the boat. It’s an entertaining enough set up, but the dance scene itself leaves a lot to be desired and drags on far too long. While not without its charm, “The Gentleman’s Wager” really could have been told in half its running time. Stay with us for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Wongdoody has launched a new campaign for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, their first for the beverage retailer, and the brand’s largest campaign to date.

A 30-second online spot entitled “Cool Kew” (featured above), debuted late last month. It consists almost entirely of an argument between two guys on whether their drinks are “cool” or “kew” (a pronunciation they clearly stole from Eric Cartman). You think their argument is finally over around the 20 second mark, but it just starts up again, in an attempt to find humor in audience expectations that really doesn’t work. There’s also a 15-second version of the spot (which makes sense) and an extended 90-second version (which does not).

More interesting is the campaign’s Instagram component, called #PurpleStrawCam, which encourages consumers to cut off a piece of their purple Coffee Bean straw to use as a makeshift camera filter and submit the results to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s Instagram page. The purple straw creates an unusual effect and contributes to some interesting photos. The campaign also includes Pinterest, Vine and other social components, as well as outdoor and radio.

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W+K São Paulo has a new spot for Nike entitled “Tomorrow Starts Now,” reminding Brazilians who have just had their hearts broken by the World Cup that they still have the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics to look forward to.

The well-produced 60-second spot, created in conjunction with PBA Cinema/Produtora Associados and director Nico Perez Veiga seeks to inspire with a montage of Brazilian athletes training and competing at their respective sports. While the inclusion of indoor soccer may poor a little salt in some still fresh wounds, the larger message is to forget the past and move forward. The dialogue and voiceover free spot relies entirely on its soundtrack and footage to get its message across, ending with the “Tomorrow Starts Now” tagline, which serves as both an inspiration for a nation in need of some cheering up and a more general Nike-style rallying call. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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McCann Worldgroup announced the appointment of Mark Lund as CEO of McCann Worldgroup UK today. Lund will begin his role in October and will be responsible for “integrating McCann Worldgroup’s operations and more than 1,500 employees throughout the UK across Advertising, Relationship Management, Promotion/Event/Shopper Marketing, Design, Public Relations, Healthcare, and Digital Marketing.”

Lund was most recently a co-founder and managing partner of the London agency NOW for three years. Prior to co-founding NOW, Lund served a stint as CEO of the Central Office of Information (COI), the UK government’s marketing agency which also happens to be the country’s largest client. Before that he co-founded Delaney Lund Knox Warren (DLKW), which went on to become a top 10 agency in the UK. (more…)

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